Israel Hints At Return To `Targeted Killings'

JERUSALEM — Israel hinted on Wednesday it was returning to a policy of "targeted killings" of Palestinian insurgents, a practice it had largely abandoned under a truce struck four months ago.

It appeared that the immediate threat of assassination applied only to members of Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for recent attacks against Israelis.

Israeli security officials confirmed Wednesday that a missile strike in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday had been an attempt to kill an Islamic Jihad member.

"Any means to neutralize this organization are relevant and possible," said Gideon Ezra, the Israeli minister for public security.

The Israeli warning underscored the cooling of relations between the governments of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met Tuesday for the first time in four months. By most accounts, the session was unproductive.

Throughout more than four years of conflict, Israel employed the tactic of targeted killings against scores of Palestinian insurgents, including Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Such pinpoint attacks usually were carried out with missiles fired by helicopters or drones, hitting militants in their cars, on motorbikes and once on a donkey-drawn cart.

Sometimes the targets were suspected of involvement in imminent attacks against Israelis. Some, like Yassin and his successor Abdulaziz Rantisi, slain just weeks apart last year, were senior leaders with widely varying degrees of involvement in planning of suicide bombings.

An Islamic Jihad spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Khader Habib, said if targeted killings resume, the group would respond with force. "If they target any leader or activist, we won't sit by with our hands folded," he said.

Wednesday also brought fresh indications of chaos and lawlessness that have been plaguing the Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the Balata refugee camp outside the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian gunmen fired volleys of shots outside a building where Prime Minister Ahmed Quereia was speaking, then set off an explosive device as he was leaving the area. The Palestinian leader, who was uninjured, had traveled to Balata, a stronghold of militant groups, to talk about the need for law and order.